Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Friday, October 24th, 2014



I fell asleep quickly, woke up, but didn’t get up, when Teresa got up to help Laura in the morning, and I woke/got up at 6:50am.  Teresa got up 30 minutes later after I had showered.

By 8:30 I was ready to go I just needed to wait for Teresa to finish getting ready.  We left the finca at 9:15 and caught a minivan after a 20 minute wait.  For the first time, the minivan stopped at the Caldas turnoff and a man walked over from across the street with a clipboard and talked to everyone on the bus.  I had given Teresa 6 mil for the trip and she gave 4 mil to the man with the clipboard.

We were at Los Molinos by 10:40.  I took some money out of the first ATM I found – an ATH.

Just around the corner was the salon but Juan Rojas was busy and said to come back at 11am.  We went next door to Studio F where Teresa found a blouse she really liked for 149,900 so I bought it for her birthday present.

At 11:05 we were back at the salon where Teresa got a pedicure for 18mil while I got a haircut for 22 mil.

While I was waiting for Teresa to finish I went upstairs and checked on the movies playing in their theater.  Unfortunately I didn’t recognize anything and nothing was starting earlier than 2pm anyway.  On the way back I noticed a large store selling stuff for Halloween.

After her pedicure I took her upstairs and we had fun looking at all the Halloween costumes and especially the displays.  Afterwards we went next door where we had a nice little lunch – the lunch of the day - at El Rancherito.
 
I had Teresa call Marta and we found out she would be at the store between 1pm and 2pm.  We killed some time by going downstairs to Home Center where we bought some AAA batteries and a part for Teresa’s pressure cooker.  She talked to someone there and after about 20 minutes it seemed like she had signed up for their points award card or something.

We took a taxi to Colorama – Jamie & Marta’s store at Carrera 76 #29-68.  (It was only about a 6 block walk from Los Molinos but I wasn’t going to ask Teresa to do that in heels.)  The taxi driver kind of got lost on the way and didn’t seem to understand how to read the store numbers even though I told him to turn around and go the other way.

When we got to the store there were 3 old ladies in the entrance eating ice cream from little cups.  Even though Marta was there it seemed like she was waiting for them to finish before helping us.  At one point a dwarf came in and bought a package of cigarettes for 1,500 pesos.  That’s only about 75 cents but then again I’m sure they weren’t a good brand like Marlboros.  It turned out the ladies were having their Cedulas laminated and they were having ice cream while they waited.

Finally Marta took us in the back and showed us a letter she had written showing my original deposit amount of 2,100,000 pesos and then a deduction of 291,000 pesos which sounded about right to me.  While Teresa was reading the letter attentively I told them she’s my lawyer.  After we all were in agreement and Jamie and I each signed it and a copy, Marta took out an envelope and counted out 1,809,000 pesos for us.
After that Teresa seemed to be telling them her life story as I recognized some familiar words and we didn’t leave the stuffy back room for another 20 minutes.

We took a taxi to Viva CC.  We stopped at the Direct TV booth but Elizabeth wasn’t there.  While Teresa worked with the man who was there I went to the bathroom and then stopped at BK where I bought a medium Pepsi with lots of ice for myself and picked up a small cup of cold water for her.

After she met me in the food court we went into Exito where, after a short wait, she talked to a man who gave her the final balance on her credit card – 1,986,300 pesos.  We went to a cashier where we counted out that amount in cash and she gave us a receipt.  Teresa then led me down one of the aisles and around and finally we got back to our original location.  I asked her if she got lost because she took the long way back and we had a good laugh over that because we could have walked just one side instead of a complete rectangle.  She gave the receipt to the man and he gave her a receipt for paying off her credit card.  

Then I reminded her she wanted to talk to someone in Exito about her stovetop so she talked to a lady working in that area that gave her a telephone number of someone to call.

We left about 5pm and took a car, con effectivo, to Aguacatala station.  We didn’t exactly get there due to very heavy traffic and the driver kept taking side streets.  Eventually we got out at a bus stop on the highway.  After a 20 minute wait for an express bus (they skip Caldas) we settled on a Caldas bus and didn’t get back to the side street until 6:40.  I turned the torch on on my cell phone and we walked up in semi darkness.  At the top Teresa made me turn off my torch completely for the walk past the killer dogs.  I was quite worried about doing that.  We were very quiet in the dark until we got just even with the house with the killer dogs and my cell phone started ringing.  Luckily, the dogs didn’t come out – maybe it was too late for them – but I was ready with my pepper spray if I could see them.  We got back to the finca at 7pm. 
I checked my shoes before I entered the finca and sure enough there was dog shit on one of my shoes.  Of course I took them off right away.

Teresa made me a toasted ham & cheese sandwich and coffee for dinner.

I looked more carefully at the letter that Jamie and I had signed and realized that they didn’t include my internet bill which should be the usual 72,964 monthly charge plus 130mil for cancelling early.  I’ll bet it’s at the 2nd floor apartment.  Even though it’s a lot of money I told Teresa I am an honest man and I would contact Margarita about it at the first opportunity.

When Teresa went through our Exito purchases she found a quite a few folded plastic bags that somehow got into our bag so now we have some free garbage bags.

At 8:45 we heard thunder so we unplugged all the electronics for a few minutes before continuing our TV viewing.

Being very tired we went to bed at 10pm.

Thursday, October 23rd, 2014



I got up at 6:30am and had calentao, an arepa and coffee for breakfast.  

We left the finca at 8:45, got past the killer dogs undetected, only had to wait 10 minutes for a bus and were at Viva CC by 10:15.

For the first time I tried to take money out of the BanColombia ATM on the main floor and was able to take out the maximum of 400mil without difficulty.  (When I say maximum I mean the largest amount allowable by selecting options without having to enter the exact amount in digits.)  We stopped at the Direct TV kiosk but Elizabeth wasn’t there today.  She will be in tomorrow.  I was only able to get a weak Wi-Fi signal outside the Mac Center store.  At Exito we bought a couple food containers, granola and popcorn for 68,200.  I bought another months’ supply of Tamsulosin for 42,600 because I’m down to my last 4 pills.

We took a bus to Une and afterward I understood they are going to send out some other, more technical, workers to research our desire for Wi-Fi.  While there I noticed a sign advertising Une 4G LTE starting at $20 or $40.  I wasn’t able to get a Wi-Fi signal there. Afterwards Teresa asked if I still prefer Wi-Fi over a modem and I said yes. 

We took a taxi to Premium Plaza CC where I think Teresa cancelled Laura’s modem with Movistar.  While there I noticed a sign advertising Movistar 4G LTE.  Now I wish I had bought my iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G capability.

We had a nice lunch at Frisby of Combo #2 for me and the Frischuleta for her for a total of 38,700.  I was finally able to get a strong enough Wi-Fi signal so I could read some old emails.  While walking through the mall I noticed my first Amway store.  Teresa told me she sold Amway products for a while and I told her I did it twice. 
We took a taxi from there to the Cedimed clinic on Calle 7.  The taxi driver didn’t know where it was so I told him to go to Parque Pablado and I gave him directions from there.  He played some American music on his radio and when I found out he spoke a little English I switched to giving him directions in English.

Again I was able to get a strong Wi-Fi connection in the clinic while waiting for my test results so I was able to read more of my emails.  We walked down the hill where we caught a bus to Envigado, walked down the steep hill and to the other side of the metro station where after about a 15 minute wait we caught a bus back to the finca.  BTW, on the walk through Envigado I noticed a barbershop named Snoop Dogg Barberia.

I used up 4 sprays on the Doberman until the owner came out and called him off.

Teresa mentioned her orthodontist charges 20mil for a teeth cleaning compared to the 130mil I paid my orthodontist.

Teresa and I took a little nap from 5:15 to 5:45.

When I got up Teresa told me Laura was crying because she lost 50mil pesos today.  She needed 70mil pesos for something and, not having exact change yesterday, I gave Teresa 100mil for her.  Apparently she put it in the same pocket as her cell phone and it must have come out when she removed her cell phone.

We all watched Mama Mia in Spanish, except for the songs of course.

Teresa made popcorn and she and I finished an action movie followed by a music contest show I’ve never seen before called The Voice.

We went to bed at 10:30.

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014



I fell asleep quickly, was aware at one point that it was raining, and was awakened at 5am by Laura calling for Teresa outside the bedroom door.  I got up right after for a quick trip to the bathroom.  Back in bed I fell asleep quickly once again and we both woke/got up at 9:30.

At 10am I had a breakfast of calentao with an arepa and café con leche.

After my shower I continued watching The Today Show in English.  

After that I watched the end of Angels & Demons starring Tom Hanks and then Teresa put on the Colombian news in Spanish.

At 12:30 it started raining hard and Teresa ran outside.  Just then the phone rang and it was Laura.  I asked her to wait because Teresa was outside and it is raining hard here.  I turned off the TV and unplugged the electronics.  The rainstorm lasted for about 20 minutes.  

At 1pm it rained hard again for another 10 minutes.

Laura came back at 1:30 and at 2pm we had a nice lunch of soup, fruit salad, and a couple ribs with rice and juice.

At 3:45 we heard more thunder in the distance and at 4pm came more rain and then we lost our satellite signal while watching American President dubbed in Spanish.  The rain finally stopped about 5:30.

At 7:30 I had a ham and cheese toasted sandwich with hot chocolate.

We went to bed at 10:30.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2014



I woke up sometime around 4am and after my usual trip to the bathroom I had a little difficulty getting back to sleep.  I got up about 6 or 6:30 and Teresa was already up; I’m guessing she didn’t go back to bed after helping Laura get ready for school.  On my way back from the bathroom she told me she’s going to clean the garden (whatever that means) and she asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee.  I declined as I just wanted to get back to bed.  I got up at 7am and had a light breakfast of scrambled eggs, arepa with cheese, and cup of coffee.  Teresa said she was tired and wanted to go back to bed for a 30 minute nap so I joined her.  I fell asleep quickly and we finally woke/got up at 10:40am!  

I took my shower while she fed the dogs.

Teresa just had a little panic attack because the lighter she uses to light the stove doesn’t work anymore even though I can still see fluid inside.  She says she has matches but I understand she wants to call Laura later to have her pick one up on her way back from school.

At 12:30 I had a bowl of granola.  Teresa couldn’t make lunch because she can’t light the stove.

Teresa talked to Marta and made arrangements for us to pick up my money on Friday then we will pay off her Exito bill and cancel her credit card and I plan to get me a haircut at Los Molinos.

Thursday we will visit Une once again, visit Movistar again, and pick up my blood test results in El Poblado.  And we need a few things from Exito and Home Center.

Laura came back about 1:15 and Teresa started making lunch.

Direct TV called at 3pm and I understood that Teresa has to sign some papers in Viva CC, probably a contract, so she told them next Monday.

The dogs, with the exception of Peter, are starting to get the hang of obeying “sit” for a dog biscuit.  Luna, the mother, is the best of all as she often sits before I even give the command.

At 3:30 Une called and I understand someone will be here early tomorrow morning.
We all watched Pride & Prejudice, in Spanish only, but luckily I had seen it recently in English.

We watched The Town with Ben Affleck and then we started The Island with Ewan McGreggor and Scarlett Johannsen but at 9pm Teresa wanted to watch the latest episode of Resurrection so we switched channels.

We went to bed at 10:30. 

Monday, October 20th, 2014



I fell sleep quickly but after I got up at 4am I had difficulty getting back to sleep.  Teresa got up soon after to help Laura get ready for school.  She came back to bed soon after and later I learned that Laura was late getting up.  The next time I woke up I heard a fireworks test and saw light coming through the shutters.  The next time I woke up I looked at my watch and it was 9:50am.  Yikes!

For breakfast I had coffee and an arepa with ham and cheese.

Teresa told me her 3 year old Haceb stove only has 1 of the 4 burners working so she wants to stop at the Envigado Exito to talk to someone about it.  (BTW, she doesn’t use the oven because it uses too much electricity.)  She also has an 11 year old Whirlpool refrigerator and a 10 year old Samsung combination clothes washer/dryer that both work fine although she has someone in occasionally for preventive maintenance on the latter.

I noticed a few bugs had gotten into my sugar container because the little metal door doesn’t close all the way.  I poured out all the sugar, removed the bugs, put the sugar back and switched tops.  Hopefully that will solve that problem.

We called Marta on her cell phone to ask about my apartment deposit refund but there was no answer.  We tried the store and Jamie said that Marta would be in later.

I see that Monday Night Football is at 7:25pm tonight on ESPI (ESPN 1? channel 621) and ESPHD (ESPN High Definition channel 622).

Laura came home at 1pm and asked where my iPad is.  I got it out and she said something about Wi-Fi.  I looked at Settings and saw a network named AndroidAP available.  I selected it, she entered the password and I was able to get an internet access.  We did the same for my laptop and my Nook and it worked although the connection is slow.  I asked her how she happened to know the password and what I understood was that after we recharged her Samsung cell phone I can get Wi-Fi from it as long as it’s here.  

At 1:15 it started raining again with a little thunder and lightning.  It was over by 1:45.

I keep getting “The request timed out” when I try to download my Nook book on my iPad.  And only the email titles have downloaded not their content.  

Teresa mentioned that Laura’s laptop modem gives her 2mg speed and it can be increased to 8mb.

Teresa made popcorn and we watched the movie Annapolis although it was only in English.

At 10:30 I took my Passion Flower drops, we went to bed and I quickly fell asleep.

Sunday, October 19th, 2014



Once again I had difficulty getting to sleep.  I got up at 3am and again had difficulty getting back to sleep.  I got up at 6:30, went back to bed and again had difficulty getting to sleep.  I finally woke/got up at 9:40, had breakfast, took my shower and was ready just in time for today’s game.

I scrolled through the NFL Sunday Ticket channels and today’s Bears vs Miami game is on channel 690.  The broadcast was in Spanish until I pushed the green button on the Direct TV remote which changed it to English.

Teresa hung out some laundry and 5 minutes later it started raining lightly and she had to bring it back in.  She told me she wants to buy some more jute rope and put it up in the shed to hang laundry on.  I would like her to wait until I can order a clothesline and clothes pins from the US.

The Bears were down 14-0 at the half to Miami.

At 2:10 the Une guy called and wants to know what’s the problem.  Teresa said he would be here soon and we will need to meet him at the side road in order to protect him from the killer dogs.

At 2:30 the Une guy showed up and it doesn’t sound good as far as getting Wi-Fi but Teresa said he wants us to wait one more week.  At one point I did hear her refer to me as her husband.  Teresa wants to go to the Une office again tomorrow in the Intelligence Building.  Miami beat the Bears 27-13.

We took a nap from about 3:30 to 5pm.

At 5:15 I had soup, 4 ribs with rice, Chinese salad and a glass of milk.

At 7:30 Teresa made popcorn and then we watched the latest episode of Helix.

Laura came home at 8:30 and then we watched the movie Trapped starring Kevin Bacon although it was only in English without subtitles.  I understood this is the kind of movie Teresa likes the most – suspenseful dramas.

I asked Laura what she calls the thing she sticks in the side of her laptop with Movistar on its top and she wrote down “moden”.  I looked up “modem” in my dictionary and the Spanish word is the same so I guess she just misheard the name.

Teresa decided we would go to Une on Thursday as she needs to go to Movistar that day anyway.  We will also stop at Cedimed and pick up the results of my blood tests.

We went to bed at 11:15.

I've run out of examples for T-shirt of the Day!

Saturday, October 18th, 2014



I got up once during the night and again had a difficult time getting back to sleep.  I woke/got up at 8:20 and Teresa followed soon after.

I had a bowl of granola for breakfast.  

At 10:15 it started raining lightly but at least it wasn’t a thunderstorm so we still had television.  It got so cold though that I put a sweater on over my warm up suit.

I watched the 1990 movie classic Mujer Bonita aka Pretty Woman.
 
Teresa surprised me when she called the man who will build the closet.  I thought we were out of minutes but she explained that we would run out of minutes soon if we called Une because, just like in the US, you spend so much time on hold.  After she hung up with the closet guy she asked me if I’d rather have 5 columns of shelves only and I answered no.

Teresa made lunch of soup, breaded chicken, rice, and Chinese salad.  I also had a glass of milk.  It took me 30 minutes to finish it and I told her next time I would be happy with the same thing but without the chicken.

Teresa, with Laura’s help, spent most of the day housecleaning.

At 5:30 Laura left for Envigado and I gave her 20mil to recharge my cell phone and 10mil to recharge hers.

Teresa made popcorn and we watched Sleepless in Seattle starring Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan.

At 8:40pm I received the text message confirming that Laura recharged my cell phone with 20mil.

We went to bed at 10:15pm.

Friday, October 17th, 2014



I got up 2 or 3 times during the night and had difficulty getting back to sleep after the last time.  I woke up about 6am when I first heard the dogs barking and saw a little light coming through the edge of the shutters.  I fell back asleep and we both didn’t wake/get up until 8:45am.

At 9:15 we received a call from Une.  Teresa told me they would be here soon but right now they are still in downtown Medellin so that puts them at least an hour away. 

We moved Teresa’s armoire to the side of the bedroom and removed a clothes rack to make room for the new closet.  We had a difference of opinion as to what it would look like.  I wanted shelves on each side with clothes rods between them and 2 sliding doors to enclose everything.  What I understand I’m going to get are 5 compartments alternating between shelves and clothes rods with a separate door enclosing each. 

I received a call at 12:15 but we didn’t get to the phone in time and I guess I don’t have any minutes left in order to call them back.  I don’t recognize the number but maybe it was Une.

At 1pm I had a nice lunch of soup, chicken, rice, Chinese salad and juice.

At 2pm it started raining again so we had to turn off the TV and disconnect it, the Direct TV box and the DVD player.  October is the rainiest month in Medellin, both with the most days of rain and the total amount of rain.

While I was doing a Rosetta Stone lesson on my computer, Luna was under the table resting her head in my lap.  I didn’t really care for it too much because she smells; all the dogs are badly in need of a bath.  Tony came over and attacked Luna.  Teresa said it’s because he was jealous.

Une never showed up; maybe tomorrow.

We made popcorn and watched more movies and the Helix TV series.

We went to bed at 10pm but for some reason it took me a long time to get to sleep.


Thursday, October 16th, 2014



I slept through the night, woke/got up at 6:10am, took my shower, and Teresa made me a breakfast of a cheese sandwich, arepa de chocolo and hot chocolate.  About 8am we walked past the neighbor’s house without incident.  After about a 15 minute wait we caught a bus to Caldas.  We stopped at an ATM machine across from the park where I took out 400mil.  Then we stopped at the same panaderia as last time (Industria de Alimentos Aymara) where Teresa had an arepa de chocolo, a pastel pollo frito and a cafĂ© con leche for 6,500.  Because I was still stuffed from breakfast I only had a glass of water.

We walked a few more blocks where we shopped in the same grocery store and we bought 136,450 worth of groceries.  We had everything put in a taxi and then stopped a few blocks away where Teresa went into a store and came out with a large (25kg) bag of dog food.  

The side street from the road to her finca is in 3 sections most of which are concrete paved but only where the tires should meet the road.  On the last section the driver mistakenly turned off the road at the first finca – the wrong one.  When he backed up he drove too far and the left wheels were off the road.  He tried to back up further to back onto the road, but probably made things worse because his tires fell into a tight rut between the road and the hill.  He got the jack out of his trunk, put it on the rear axle and raised the back end.  Then we all pushed the car off the jack to the side and back onto the road.  Then he put rocks under the front end and drove over them back onto the road.  It was pretty impressive; I’m sure in the states we would have called a tow truck.  He drove up the last section, helped unload the car, and with the help of a young man we carried everything down to the finca.  This time the Doberman seemed to be waiting for us in the middle of the path while the other dog was further ahead like they were trying to surround us.  Teresa used a branch to keep the other dog away and I had to continually threaten the Doberman with my spray to keep it away.

For lunch I had soup, 4 ribs with rice, salad and what Teresa called tomato tree juice.

The roofing guy finally finished at 4pm and it cost 182mil to fix the roof.

Teresa told me that Une called and they will be here tomorrow between 8am and noon.

I have 3 new mosquito bites: 1 on my left hand and 1 on each upper arm.

At 4:45 it started to rain and then hailed the size of the tip of my little finger.  That lasted about 5 minutes but still surprised me that we would get ice in this part of the world.  Whenever there is lightning we turn off the TV and unplug it.  I also unplug my laptop although it will continue working for about 2 ½ hours on its battery.   Unfortunately the roof leaked again only this time in a different place.

With my Claro Sim card I occasionally get text messages with some type of deals but now with the MoviStar Sim card I also get phone calls with offers.   I gave the phone to Teresa and told her she can carry my phone now to screen these calls.  A few minutes later Teresa tried calling someone from my phone but told me I’m out of minutes.  That was a bit of a surprise but I guess Teresa probably spent a lot of time “on hold” with Direct TV and then Une.  (Later I found out that I still have a lot of minutes left; it's just that Teresa doesn't want to use them up on hold with Une.)

We went to bed at 10pm.

T-shirt of the day: Vintage gas station

Wednesday, October 15th, 2014



I got up twice during the night before Teresa got up at 4:30.  She woke me up at 6:50 and I got up, had a cheese sandwich, arepa de chocolo and hot chocolate.  I took my shower and dressed ready to leave for Caldas to buy dog food with Teresa.

At 7:55 the roofing guy called and told her he wants to come today instead of tomorrow.  She told me he will be here all day but he would stop in Caldas to buy some dog food for us.

Laura slept in a little as she has a fever.

The roofing guy arrived at 8:50, gave Teresa the dog food and started working on the roof.  I understand there are a lot of wasp nests up there.  Teresa gave him the remainder of my bottle of paint thinner and I guess he used that to kill them.

At 11am I had a bowl of granola.  Teresa tells me we are almost out of milk so I guess we’ll soon be taking a trip into town to buy milk and dog food.

Teresa showed me her armoire in the bedroom and told me she wants to move it into the kitchen.  When she told me it would still have clothes in it I told her we’ll just put it at the side of the bed and move the bed over.  I think about a foot should be enough.
About 1:15 Laura reported that there is a lot of rain in Caldas.  The sky is darkening here but of course we hope it doesn’t rain so they roofing guy can finish his work.   1:30 and there is lightning and a light rain.

Teresa complimented me on my soft hair and asked me what I use.  I told her that every Monday and Friday morning I wash it with Pantene shampoo and follow that with Pantene conditioner.  Wednesday mornings I use Biolage Normalizing Shampoo and the other mornings I just rinse it real good with water because too much shampooing dries the hair.  Then I usually put a dab of Generic Volume Boost Gel that I bought at Sally’s Beauty Supply.

Laura came back at 5pm.

Teresa made a delicious Chinese stir fry salad although it was a little heavy on the soy sauce.  

We made popcorn and watched M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and then went to bed at 10pm.

T-shirt of the day: Osaka.

Tuesday, October 14th, 2014



I got up once during the night, again at 6:30am, woke up at 8:30 and got up at 9:30.
Teresa made a little breakfast of an arepa with calentao (frijoles & rice) and hot chocolate.

We hope to hear from Une today regarding a Wi-Fi connection but after lunch we plan to go into Caldas to buy a large bag of dog food so we don’t have to worry about replenishing it every 2-3 days.

I had a minor problem with my computer setup.  The table cloth covering my chess table wasn’t completely flat so the fan under my laptop would scrape it slightly making a little noise.  I was thinking of buying a small piece of plastic to put under it but when I explained my problem to Teresa she put a shawl over the tablecloth which fixed the problem.

At 1pm I had lunch of homemade chicken vegetable soup, rice, a slice of avocado and a glass of milk.  I put the rice into the soup a spoonful at a time making chicken rice soup.

About 1:30 Teresa finally reached Une and I understand they are working on the box down by the street and we should get 5mg Wi-Fi on Friday.  

She looked outside and said something about rain and as soon as I said “what rain” I heard thunder.  I went outside with her and first she shut Luna in the shed (she’s afraid of thunder) and then I helped her take most of the laundry off the clothesline.  I’ll bet that’s something you haven’t done in a while!

We took a nap from 2:30 to 3:30 until the thunderstorm passed then we made popcorn and watched a couple episodes of CSI.  The rain finally stopped about 4pm.

Teresa told me we’ll go to Caldas early tomorrow and buy dog food.

Laura came home at 5:45pm and we watched more episodes of CSI.

Teresa tells me that when she calls Laura in class and later when Laura calls her back she doesn’t hear it because the ringer on her phone doesn’t work.  So we will be going to Mayorca soon to buy her a new, but not expensive, cell phone.  Laura took the Movistar Sim card out of Teresa’s cell phone and put it in my phone.

I had a sandwich and glass of milk for a late dinner and then we watched Seth Rogan and Barbara Streisand in The Guilt Trip.

We went to bed at 10pm.

T-shirt of the day: Design is everything.

Monday, October 13th, 2014



I got up once during the night – about 3am.  I woke up at 8:30 and got up at 9am.  Its 10:30 and Laura still hasn’t surfaced but then again today is a holiday and tomorrow she probably starts back at school.

I had a bowl of granola and a hot chocolate for breakfast.

Today is the coolest day since I got here.  I put a sweater on over my t-shirt.

I watched an old episode of Bonanza.

Teresa brought me an apple for a snack.

I took a nap with Teresa from about 3:45 to 4:45 although she snuck out after a few minutes to clean the house.

When I got up they were eating popcorn and watching the movie, 3rd person, that we watched in English the other day.  They made another batch of popcorn that Teresa and I shared.  After the movie they thought it was just as complicated as I thought it was.

Teresa heated some bread and I had a couple slices with butter and a cup of coffee.

Teresa went up to the loft and retrieved the seat cushion I had used in my apartment when I was working with my computer.  I measured it for Laura - 43 x 43 cm - and I understood she wants to use it for some meetings in school.  She asked me where I bought it and after a few seconds I told her I bought it for 10mil from a man on Calle 10.  I told her she could have/use it.
Laura brought me an exercise paper in English and I gave her the answers.  A couple choices were even wrong, being in present tense instead of past tense, but I gave her the correct answers.

At 7:30 I checked for the Monday night football game and saw it is on ESP3 (probably ESPN3) channel 626.

We started watching a movie or series with zombies but she found it too gory so I switched to Cowboys and Aliens on FX (217) even though it was only in English.  Interestingly, besides starring Harrison Ford it also starred Daniel Craig who we recently saw in Casino Royale and the dark haired blue-eyed beauty from House we just saw in 3rd Person.  When I get an internet connection I can look up the name of the actress.

We went to bed at 10:15pm.

T-shirt of the day: Always lovely.

Sunday, October 12th, 2014



I got up once during the night at 2am.  I took the Passion Flower drops but still had difficulty getting back to sleep.  While lying there I was thinking about a cheaper way to get my Chicago Bears games on TV.  Maybe I can hook the HDMI cable from my laptop to the TV, use an IP changer to change my location to Chicago, access Chicago TV using something – is there a Comcast Online – so I can get just my Bears games.  I remember Patrick at his bar mentioning something about having Slingbox in his home in Arizona so that is something else I can explore.  After quite some time I finally fell back asleep and woke up at 7:20.  Teresa got up right away and I got up 30 minutes later.  I had a quick breakfast of arepa de chocolo, arepa with butter and hot chocolate.

I understood she wanted to go to mass in Amaga and if there was time available we would buy some groceries.  She wanted me to look nice so she picked out a long sleeve shirt.  I went along with it because the last few days have been quite cool and we aren’t going into the warmer weather of Medellin.

We left the finca at 9:05, I contributed 4 sprays to the killer dogs, and we waited 5 minutes for the bus to Amaga.  The fare was only 2mil each.  It is a small town a 20 minute bus ride away including one stop at a toll booth.  Amaga is on the side of the hill and has a smaller than usual town square but it has the usual church at one end with small stores surrounding it.
As soon as we hit the steps of the church Teresa asked someone about mass.  I understood something about a children’s mass.  We looked down the steps and saw a hearse so I guess there was also a funeral planned.  

We walked to the other end of the town square where we found a vegetable store where we bought 2 bags of vegetables for 14mil.  By 9:50 we carried them back to the church and sat on the steps just inside the door.  It was nice and cool sitting on the stone steps.  The church was pretty packed and I understood this was a mass for children.  We could easily hear one little girl singing louder than the others and she made up for her lack of skill with her enthusiasm.  We left at 10:45 and stopped at a grocery store where we bought 2 more bags of groceries for about 40mil.  Teresa told me that food is even cheaper in Amaga than in Caldas.  She promised me that we weren’t going to have to lug bags of food around all the time; once a month we will go to Caldas to buy most of our food and bring it back in a taxi.

We walked to the bus stop where at first we got on the wrong bus.  When we got on the right one it felt as hot as an oven.  With help from another man we managed to open a couple of windows where we were sitting in the back.  After about a 10-15 minute wait we were finally under way.

I only needed 1 spray this time to deter the Doberman.

We got to the finca right at game time and I was happy to finally get out of my long sleeved shirt.  I went through the Direct TV NFL channels (687-696) and there were 8 games (2 channels not available) but not my Bears game.  I checked through all the sports channels and found one more game on FXS2 (channel 608) which is probably Fox Sports 2 but it still wasn’t the Bears game.  Teresa started making calls to Direct TV as I went through the channels again.  I tried doing the arithmetic: 36 teams, 18 games, 1 (or is it 2 now) on Monday night, 1 (or is it 2 now) on Thursday night, 1 (or 2) on Sunday night, and maybe there aren’t enough channels for all the games.  I was watching the scores at the bottom of the screen and I never saw one for the Bears at Atlanta game.  I started thinking maybe this game got changed due to Flexible Scheduling but I didn’t think it started this early in the season.  Not having an internet connection I couldn’t check online.  I checked the schedule I had printed out and laminated and I saw that FS started last week.  Someone called Teresa back and I understood the game was on later on the same channel as the Packers game.  I checked the guide and scrolled to the right where I saw the Bears game starts at 3:30.
Teresa made a nice lunch of chicken leg & wing with rice, cole slaw (although I wasn’t crazy about her choice of “dressing”) and juice.

She then took a nap from 2:15 to 3:00.

The game started at 3:25 but there was no sound.  Nothing.  About 20 minutes later the sound returned but it only lasted for about a minute.  Teresa made popcorn and she took the bottle of Pepsi I bought earlier out of the freezer and it was partially frozen.  Finally, 30 minutes into the game the sound came on for good.  

Since this is my first Direct TV game I’ll mention some unusual things.  The play by play and commentary is sometimes in Spanish and sometimes in English and whenever there is a stoppage of play, where you would normally see a commercial, instead there are just the words NFL Sunday Ticket displayed on a blue background with some obnoxious “music”.  I’d much rather see the American commercials.

At halftime the Bears were ahead 13-3.

Teresa made more popcorn only this time she said it was all for me.

The final was Chicago Bears 27 Atlanta Falcons 13.

There must be some way I can get a more American broadcast of Bears games.

We went to bed at 10pm.

T-shirt of the day: Zumba – join the party.